DTM: Wickens converts pole to victory at Norisring

Robert Wickens took a perfect lights-to-flag victory in the fourth DTM race of the 2014 season, staged in mixed conditions at the Norisring.

With the first five laps of the race taking place behind the safety car due to the rain, Wickens made a perfect getaway when the race went green. Aided by Paul di Resta spinning across the front of Jamie Green right behind him at the last corner, which held most of the field up, Wickens managed to have a 3.2-second gap after just a single racing lap.

Green did show signs of taking the race to the Canadian, quickly closing the gap to within two seconds, but he was unable to make a serious play for the lead. By mid-race distance Wickens had managed to massage the gap back out to more than 10s, which ballooned to more than 15s after he stopped for option tires on lap 58, as the track dried out. From there, he cruised to a 23.9sec win.

Green did end up finishing second, but it could easily have been third. The Audi driver was jumped by Christian Vietoris during the stops, only reclaiming second when Vietoris was struck with a right-front wheel problem on lap 75.

Mattias Ekstrom was another to benefit from Vietoris' misfortune, grabbing third as the Mercedes rolled to a stop.

Edoardo Mortara finished fourth, ahead of a thrilling battle for fifth between Adrien Tambay and Pascal Wehrlein. It was the Frenchman who ultimately claimed the position, after escaping penalty for clashing into Wehrlein while trying to go past a handful of laps from the end.

There was another frantic squabble over eighth -- which became seventh when Vietoris retired -- between the BMWs of Joey Hand and Marco Wittmann, and the Audis of Mike Rockenfeller and Timo Scheider. In the end it was points leader Wittmann who came out on top, ahead of Hand. Rockenfeller and Scheider rounded out the top 10.

Gary Paffett and di Resta both had disappointing races. Di Resta struggled to recover from spinning at the start of the race and came home 15th. Paffett, meanwhile, looked strong in the early stages of the race, but was spun late in the race by Martim Tomczyk, which left him down in 12th.